IMC-CAN Team Weekly Action May 28, 2026
This Action Alert urges supporters to help qualify two Massachusetts ballot initiatives for the November 2026 ballot by signing petitions locally or downloading, signing, and mailing them to organizers by early June so they can be certified in time for state deadlines.
The first initiative would establish Election Day Voter Registration, allowing eligible voters to register or update their registration at polling places on Election Day to ensure that no voter loses access to the ballot due to outdated registration information. This is a pro-democracy no-brainer!
The second initiative would expand Massachusetts public records laws to cover the Legislature and the Governor’s Office, which are currently exempt, to increase transparency and public oversight of state government while still protecting certain policy-development and constituent-service communications. Removing these two exemptions is essential to ensuring that voters and advocates have a full understanding of how decisions get made here in Massachusetts.
While these two ballots gathered enough signatures in December, they now face another round of signature collection, per the Massachusetts ballot initiative process. This second signature-gathering phase must be completed before the June 17, 2026, deadline to file signature sheets with city and town clerks.
Use this Action Alert to read up about these measures. If you cannot locate a canvasser, you can download the petitions yourself, sign them, and then snail-mail them to the organizers, ideally no later than June 10, 2026.
The “Bonus Action” section encourages readers to be cautious and research petitions before signing them, specifically, regarding a proposed “All-Party” or “jungle primary” ballot initiative backed by the Coalition for Healthy Democracy. Under that proposal, all candidates, regardless of party, would compete in a single primary, with only the top two advancing to the general election. While supporters argue it would encourage broader competition, opponents cited in the alert—including Progressive Mass and Democratic Party organizations—warn that it could split progressive votes, advantage wealthy or better-known candidates, and potentially result in general elections without Democratic candidates even in a heavily Democratic state, as critics argue has become possible in California’s system.
Progressive Dems of Massachusetts
Read up on the Election Day Voter Registration and Public Records Law Ballot Initiatives below.
Find a canvasser in your local area to sign these petitions before mid-June. Canvassers can be found at high-traffic locations such as supermarkets and local fairs.
If you don’t have access to a canvasser, download the petitions, sign them, and mail them to the address listed on the petition with enough time for them to reach the organizers between June 5 and June 12, so the signatures can be submitted to the local election officials. Note: the petitions below must be printed exactly as they appear in the downloadable documents (white paper, double-sided, no watermark, no added text).
Click HERE for a copy of the Same-Day Voter Registration Petition.
Click HERE for a copy of the Public Records Law Initiative Petition.
See these instructions for how to sign a petition properly.
The initiative would permit election day voter registration in the state. As of 2026, Massachusetts voters must register to vote 10 days before an election to be permitted to cast a ballot in that election.
The full text of the ballot measure is available here.
No eligible voter should be turned away at the polls due to an error in or out-of-date voter registration. Election Day Voter Registration allows all eligible voters to register or update their registration in person on Election Day, eliminating the longstanding and arbitrary voter registration cutoff period.
Under the measure, voters could register to vote on election day at their polling place by providing an election official with proof of residency and then taking a written oath that they are eligible to vote.
Someone who wishes to register to vote on election day and cannot provide identification would be permitted to cast a provisional ballot, conditional upon their ability to provide the required identification.
Under the initiative, those who register to vote at a polling place on election day would also be registered to vote in subsequent elections.
Supporters:
Massachusetts Needs Same Day Voter Registration, Progressive Mass, 3/31/26, testimony about a proposed state bill.
Massachusetts Voter Table
Progressive Democrats of Massachusetts
Massachusetts Democratic State Committee
Public records laws, like all “Sunshine Laws,” are a critical component of democracy. Without information, particularly about backroom decision-making, voters and constituents are unable to advocate. Unfortunately, the Massachusetts state government is not particularly transparent. The Massachusetts Legislature and the Governor’s Office have long been criticized for their lack of transparency, the concentration of power within the Legislature’s leadership, and roadblocks to public efforts to engage in oversight and advocacy. If government actions, spending, records, and deliberations are hidden from public view, citizens cannot effectively evaluate their leaders, hold them accountable, or make informed choices at the ballot box.
The ballot initiative would make records held by the state legislature and the governor’s office public records. As of 2026, books, papers, financial statements, and other documents held by government agencies are considered public records and subject to access requirements under Massachusetts law, but documents held by the state legislature and the governor’s office are exempt from this requirement.
The initiative includes two exceptions for types of documents held by the state legislature and the governor’s office that would not be subject to the public record law. Those include:
documents related to the development of policy positions of legislators or the governor; and
communications between a legislator’s office and their constituents concerning a constituent’s access to government services.
Testimony on Expanding the Public Records Law, Progressive Mass, 6/24/25
Supporters:
Progressive Mass
Massachusetts Fiscal Alliance
In Massachusetts, citizens can place proposed laws or constitutional amendments on the statewide ballot through the initiative petition process. For a proposed law, supporters first file a petition signed by 10 registered voters with the Attorney General by the first Wednesday in August of the year before the election (i.e., 2025). If certified by the state, organizers must gather roughly 75,000 signatures by early December. The proposal then goes to the Legislature in January, which can enact it, substitute its own version, or do nothing. If lawmakers do not enact it by the first Wednesday in May, supporters must collect an additional roughly 12,400 signatures by early July to secure a place on the November ballot.
Right now, for the 2026 cycle, Massachusetts is in the post-legislative phase: the Legislature’s May 5, 2026, deadline to act on certified petitions has passed, so campaigns that survived are now gathering the second round of signatures needed for the November 2026 ballot. The next major deadline is June 17, 2026, when those additional signatures must be submitted to local election officials for certification, followed by the final filing deadline with the Secretary of State on July 1, 2026.
Look before you sign!
Not all petitions are alike, and sometimes they require a deeper dive in order to understand their ramifications.
The Coalition for Healthy Democracy is putting forward an “All-Party” Primary System as a ballot initiative. On the surface, this effort appears to support democratic norms. This proposal would eliminate party primaries and place all candidates, regardless of party, on a single primary ballot, with the top two vote-getters advancing to the general election. Advocates for the All-Party primary system, sometimes called a “jungle primary,” argue it would increase competition and force candidates to appeal beyond their base.
Opponents, including Democratic Party organizations, Progressive Mass, and others, contend that this system would risk promoting conservative GOP candidates in fields with multiple progressive Democratic candidates. In theory, even in an overwhelmingly liberal state, two Republican candidates could advance to the general election. Critics note that this system gives candidates with greater name recognition and huge corporate donations an unfair advantage.
The case against an all-party primary in Massachusetts, Boston Globe Opinion, May 7, 2026
Read our 10/15/25 IMC-CAN about the Primary Ballot Initiative
Share this link to SUBSCRIBE TO THE IMC-CAD with everyone you can (we are keeping this subscription free–it’s ok to skip the “Pledge” button that appears).
Today, technology has far outpaced privacy law. Data brokers and Big Tech companies can collect, analyze, and sell vast amounts of our personal information, including precise cellphone location data that can reveal where we live, work, worship, seek medical care, protest, or spend time with our families.
Recent reporting shows that federal immigration authorities, including ICE, have purchased location data from private companies to track people without a warrant. These unchecked surveillance practices threaten everyone’s privacy and safety, but they especially endanger immigrants, LGBTQ people, abortion patients and providers, protesters, survivors of domestic violence, journalists, and other vulnerable communities.
The Massachusetts Consumer Data Privacy Act (H.4746) would establish some of the strongest digital privacy protections in the country. The bill would ban the sale of precise geolocation data, limit how companies collect and process personal information, strengthen protections for minors and sensitive data, prohibit digital discrimination, and create meaningful accountability for powerful corporations that profit from surveillance.
The Massachusetts Senate already unanimously approved a strong version of this legislation, and the House Advanced IT Committee favorably reported the current bill in November 2025. Since then, however, the bill has stalled in the House Ways and Means Committee with no vote scheduled. Now is the time to contact your State Representative and demand action to move this critical privacy legislation forward. Use this CAN to advocate with your State House Representative, urging them to get these needed reforms done now!
As a bonus action, activists are also urging legislators to oppose proposed social media age-verification and youth social media restriction bills, including H.4229, “An Act protecting children from addictive social media feeds”. Critics, including more than 50 human rights, civil liberties, privacy, and LGBTQ advocacy organizations, warn that requiring users to verify their ages through government-issued identification or biometric systems would undermine anonymity, chill free expression, create major data privacy risks, and place vulnerable young people, especially LGBTQ youth, at greater risk rather than keeping them safe. The Senate adopted its own version of the bill, which does NOT include the concerning age verification requirements.
Progressive Mass
ACLU of MA
Fight for the Future
Step One: Find your MA House Representative HERE.
Step Two:
Call Script: (personalize all items in blue):
If you reach an answering machine and leave a voicemail, be certain to leave your full name, address, and phone number so that your call is tallied
“Hi, my name is [Name], and I’m your constituent in [Town]. I am calling to urge [Rep Name] to support the Consumer Data Privacy Act, H.4746, and get it to a vote as quickly as possible.
Massachusetts families deserve safety, privacy, and fairness, not ICE collaboration, not data brokers, not corporate loopholes. This bill is important for protecting our personal location data and keeping everyone safe.
This bill is a critical step to not only protect our privacy, but to keep people in Massachusetts safe from exploitation, harassment, or violence – including immigrants, seniors, children, people seeking abortion and gender-affirming care, survivors of domestic abuse, veterans, elected officials, and law enforcement.
The Massachusetts Consumer Data Privacy Act would stop unnecessary and invasive online surveillance by creating meaningful limits on the collection and use of our personal data and prohibiting companies from selling our precise location information.
Please act to protect our privacy and personal safety by passing the Massachusetts Data Privacy Act as swiftly as possible.
Thank you.
[Your name]”
Recent reports have shown that ICE has been buying cell phone location data to track people at work or at home. Currently, no laws prevent data brokers from buying and selling our sensitive data, like location data, on the open market. Strengthening our data privacy protections is essential. Big Tech companies like Facebook and Google, which have been buddying up to the Trump administration, are lobbying to water down the Massachusetts bill. If adopted, this data privacy bill would be the strongest protection in the country!
The House Advanced IT Committee released H.4746 with a favorable report. Now, it sits in the House Ways and Means Committee, with no sign of movement on the bill.
The MCDPA (H. 4746) builds on a bill unanimously passed by the Senate in September. Both bills include strong data minimization rules that set meaningful limits on the personal data that companies can collect and the sensitive data they can use, offer enhanced protections for minors’ personal data, ban the sale of precise geolocation data, and have strong civil rights language to prohibit digital discrimination. The House bill also includes:
A private right of action under Massachusetts’ Consumer Protection law (chapter 93A) for large data holders, offering a critical enforcement option against the most powerful companies that collect large volumes of personal data;
A requirement that the processing of non-sensitive personal data be consistent with the consumers’ reasonable expectations;
A stronger definition of “affirmative consent” narrows the exemption for publicly available information;
The addition of union membership and veteran status to the definition of “sensitive data”;
A strong data security rule that requires companies to delete personal data when it is no longer necessary for the purpose for which it was collected; and
A requirement that browsers offer a global opt-out signal to consumers, mirroring a protection just enacted in California.
Your State Representative needs to hear from YOU about the importance of getting a strong bill passed as soon as possible.
Progressive Mass’s Data Privacy Links, 2026
Sep 2025: The MA Senate voted 40-0 to pass the Massachusetts Data Privacy Act, which would ban the sale of sensitive data (including location data). Senate Fact Sheet.
Nov 2025: The Location Shield Act bill was folded into a new draft, (H.4746) “ Massachusetts Consumer Data Privacy Act,” a broader omnibus privacy bill. This bill contains broad privacy rules that treat precise geolocation data as sensitive. The ACLU of Massachusetts supports the bill’s consumer protections, including bans on selling sensitive information (like precise location data) and protections for people vulnerable to exploitation, harassment, or discrimination. The bill is currently before the House Ways and Means Committee, but it could come to the House floor for a vote soon.
Mass House Committee Releases Strong Privacy Bill, Nov 17, 2025
ACLU of Massachusetts Applauds House Data Privacy Bill
Previous IMC-CANs (7/02/25 & 8/27/25)included action alerts for a previous version of this law, the Location Shield Act (H.86/S.197).
Oppose the Unconstitutional Social Media Ban and Age Verification Requirements. nnolly
50+ human rights groups release letter urging Massachusetts lawmakers to reject age verification bills, hold press conference with Rep. Mike Connolly, Fight for the Future, 5/13/26
Human rights advocates rally against proposed youth social media ban in Mass., WGBH, 5/13/26
25 Reasons to Oppose Age-Based Social Media Bans, Mass50501
The Coordinated Action Network (IMC-CAN) Team is an Action Team of the Indivisible Massachusetts Coalition (IMC). We work with legislative experts and advocacy groups (Indivisible National, ACLU, Common Cause, Progressive Mass, MIRA, and many others) to vet and prioritize a short list of actions for the week. These actions are sent to thousands of individuals each Wednesday through IMC’s weekly newsletter.
Please share these priority IMC-CAN actions with your networks each week to amplify our impact! Click on the Action Sheet links below for everything you need!
Have a good idea for the CAN? You can suggest action items! Each week, the IMC-CAN Team receives suggested actions from a wide range of activists through its CAN Team Action Submission Form.
SUBSCRIBE HERE TO THE FREE IMC-CAN SUBSTACK
Share this link to SUBSCRIBE TO THE IMC-CAN with everyone you can (we are keeping this subscription free–it’s ok to skip the “Pledge” button that appears).
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